Auxiliary Out Radio Programme #46 (11/15/09)

Chapels “Beggar” Last Night of Earth [Stunned 2009] (CS)

Cro Magnon “Crop Circles” Split with Circuit des Yeux/Bird [Goaty Tapes] (CS)

Dubbio Nil “Seed, Fruit, Thorn (excerpt)” Seed, Fruit, Thorn [Hymns 2009] (3” CD-r)

Arnau Sala “Voluntad D'agressió Pura with Juan Matos Capote” La Joia L'agredir [Circuit Torçat 2009] (CS)

Teenage Panzerkorps “Shopping Blitz” Games for Slaves [Siltbreeze 2008] (LP)

Muscletusk “Side A” Muscletusk [Sick Head Tapes 2009] (CS)

Buckets of Bile “Solver” Split with Paid in Puke [Speed Tapes 2009] (CS)

Alphabets “Euphoria” Nature Nature [No Label 2009] (mp3)

Rambutan “Middle Altar” Broken Infinity [Stunned 2009] (CD-r)

Stellar OM Source “Sand Lie” Crusader [No Label 2008] (CD-r)

Cough Cool “Sinking Soul” Digestible Doom [Abandon Ship 2009] (CS)

Puffy Areolas “Noble Rot” Final High [No Label 2009] (CS)

Mood Organ “Untitled” Visiting a Burning Museum [Debacle 2009] (CD-r)

Futuresport “Hibernation Pt. 2” White Chimneys [905 Tapes 2009] (CS)

Uneven Universe “Side A” Live at Cosmic Beach [Excite Bike Tapes 2009] (CS)

Grasshopper “Smokey Nights, Melting Flesh” Split with Twisty Cat [Abandon Ship 2009] (CS)

Twisty Cat “Sedenion” Split with Grasshopper [Abandon Ship 2009] (CS)

Nicholas Szczepanik “We Define Everything in Desperation” The Chiasmus [Sentient Recognition Archive/Basses Frequencies 2009] (CD)

Charly “the city mouse” Fasano - Whiskey Won't Cure Clap [Fast Geek Press]

I wasn’t sure what I was gonna think about this tape cause talking/telling stories over music doesn’t usually sit with me just right (I’m quite a fervent Hold Steady detractor amongst a certain group of friends) but anyway this Fasano dude’s stuff (backed up musically by woMANgione and Magic Cyclops) is quite good.
“Smiles that Go Ding” begins with an eerie chord organ drone before quickly switching to an arrangement of a jauntily strummed banjo, glockenspiel and steel guitar. Fasano talks about a roller rink and people wanting to wear labels that cost more than their rent and the weekends when families bombard the streets with strollers and dogs on leashes, “pushing around their accomplishments.” Fasano's stream of conscious style sounds random when certain parts are just plucked out but it works somehow in the context of each song. “Chicago Walk” ostensibly describes various Chicagoans, including an overweight man going to yoga class, stone masons, “pan handlers who only accept dollar bills” and a barista who he can’t tell “if her pants are covered in pigeon shit, or if she’s just wearing acid wash jeans.” “Bar Bar Anthology” has a really beautiful string and brass arrangement that along with Fasano’s descriptive language creates lovely cinematic images in my mind as Fasano “talks to drunks who respect [him.]” An upbeat keyboard line starts off “So Hollywood in KC MO” which is about a man, “he’s a singer, he’s in a rock n’ roll band,” going through various photo shoots and the other demands of being a popular musician. I like the music and the song as a whole though the tempo is a bit too driving for Fasano’s leisurely, somewhat weary delivery.
Nostalgia pops up its head up in “Pretend to be a Man” as Fasano details memories of his childhood pretending to be Rambo while playing capture the flag, “wanting to sing like Huey Lewis and dress like Don Johnson” and remembering how E.T. scared the shit of him. “People I Can’t Trust” has a great dark jazz vibe, giving it a vague slowed down hip-hop feel, and weirdly enough it works really well as Fasano relays a funny story about a drunken news anchor’s wild night. The downer musical vibe carries over to “TJ” but it delves into even darker, dirge-like territory giving a grim tone to Fasano’s adventures down sketchy back alleys in Mexico and depressing philosophical comments like “What do Americans really do in between commercials? My best guess is they open another bag of chips, living life 22 minutes at a time through someone else’s eyes” The tape’s closer, “If I had Money,” is sort of an update of that lame Barenaked Ladies song; Fasano spouts pithy statements like “If I had money, I’d buy a Winnebago for any band that didn’t suck” against a synthwash than veers back and forth between melancholic and euphoric.
Whiskey Won't Cure Clap is definitely an anomaly in my tape collection, but I’m glad it’s there. None of the songs wear out their welcome and it’s nice to just put on and absorb sometimes. Fasano writes well, conjuring up detailed images of numerous characters and situations with ease. Fasano remarks at one point, “Nothing happens here because I’m the only one who notices” which sums his subject matter rather well. Props to him for making “nothing happening” sound interesting. Also, woMANgione and Magic Cyclops deserve a lot credit for the great music they supplied Fasano with. WoMANgione, especially, he/she could seriously do film scores, though that moniker might have be ditched first.
Still available as far as I can tell; the tape comes in an envelope with an insert and download code.

Auxiliary Out Radio Programme #45 (11/8/09)

Streetworker “20070922” Streetworker [Wheaton 2009] (CS)

Container “Side A” Container [I Just Live Here 2008] (CS)

Swim Ignorant Fire “I Just Got Shot in the Love Handle” Haircuts [No Label 2009] (CD-r)

OVERJOID “Side A (excerpt)” Split with Fight Spider with Spider [Fast Geek Press/Buddha Palm 2009] (CS)

WOOL “Reapo” Шерсть Шерсть Шерсть [Oldturtles Tapes 2009] (CS)

HOU “Brainswell” Reticulating Inner Shade [Auris Apothecary 2009] (CD-r)

Moonflare “Ancient Comet (excerpt)” All the World is Bright with Joy and Magical Delight [Cubic Pyramid 2009] (CD-r)

Analog Concept “Deep Music has Died” Listen Already Today to the Music of Past! [Stunned 2009] (CD-r)

Little Claw “Frankie” Human Taste [Ecstatic Peace! 2009] (CD)

Scraps “Mountain Problems” Scraps [GGNZLA 2009] (CD-r)

Red Squirrels “My Bike is a Sailboat” Bleak|Beauty [Debacle 2009] (CD-r)

Physical Demon “Pleural Effusion” Split with BRNT [Atonal Microshores 2009] (CD-r)

Walrus Machine “Attic Stains” Bleak|Beauty [Debacle 2009] (CD-r)

Snowstorm “Side B” Snowstorm [Malleable 2008] (7”)

Derek Rogers “Side B” Petit Chapeau [Tape Drift 2009] (CS)

Dragging an Ox through Water “Snowbank Treatment” The Tropics of Phenomenon [Freedom to Spend 2009] (CD)

Lanterns “Divine Slaughter Pavilion” White Lodge [No Label 2009] (CD-r)

Bipolar Bear “Cape Verde” Abstract Distractions [olFactory 2009] (10”)

Cave Bears “Untitled” Jazz Hands [Serf Released 2009] (CS)

Public Bummer “Illegitimate Dad” Project Housing [Monorail Trespassing 2009] (CS)

Mortuus Auris & the Black Hand “Part Two: Buried” Omicida Della Regina/Songs for a Solo Piano [Stunned 2009] (CS)

WOOL - Шерсть Шерсть Шерсть [Oldturtles Tapes]

Spawned earlier this year, the Ukraine-based Oldturtles Tapes has put out three releases thus far, one of which is this tape by WOOL.
It’s seems like the underground has really been embracing electronic music lately, I’ve received a bunch of tapes/CD-rs over the past five months or so that prove it. This tape is one of those. “88” begins with a calm, slowly forming beat and echoing keyboard probably but maybe it’s a guitar? A new melody sounding like muted guitar harmonics leads the track into its next phase with a heavy, synth-bass undertow. The track is quite nice when the beat drops out leaving a glistening looped keyboard. I like all the elements of the piece but it’s not really composed that seamlessly, it kind of jumps section to section without building momentum. The next two are pretty sweet though. The second track “Kafakyak” (these are just my attempted transcriptions into the English alphabet, so I could be messing these titles up) is immediately more grooving. Incorporating live percussion, or samples thereof, the track slinks along confidently on the strength of its rhythms. The melodic elements are very understated which works well because there are hints of melody that make the track flow smoothly but the emphasis is kept on the beat. There are some creepy vocal samples that I could probably do without, but they don’t stop the track from really movin’. “Reapo” carries over the groove but introduces a much more complex, polyrhythmic pattern also sampled from percussion I guessing. There’s a heavily reverbed, drum machined snare hit that provides so much drama and authority to the track; it’s killer, every second or so there’s this massive “wwwwoooooshkkkkkkk”. The “melodic” elements are kept rather minimal, though those elements are mainly a simple synth-bass line and a sample of a weird groan. The track works really well and comes together surprisingly succinctly.
The flipside brings “Hole” with its wobbly Dead Prez-like sub-bass line against a minimal drum machine pattern. The jam slowly expands with a loop of distorted guitar and synthetic chimes. It’s long, slow burn and a cool jam at that. It’s probably the darkest track so far and the echoing vocal samples don’t do anything to dispel that. Out of nowhere WOOL gets all scary and no longer dubstep with “Fuck You We Murder” a mid-tempo grinding rock number which is pretty cool aside from the hushed-screamed vocals and silly lyrics like “I hate you/I want to bury you/One by one”. The last minute and a half is called “3anynk” which is a swirl of fuzz, feedback, voices, a thumping drum and other.
Limited to 50 and still available. Oldturtles peddles their tapes for only 3 bucks not including shipping, so it’s a cheap endeavor to check the label out and c’mon, how many chances do you get to add cool Ukranian dubstep tapes to your collection?

Sudden Oak - Causeways of the Sun [Bezoar Formations]

Killer cassette released in the summer by Sudden Oak, San Franciscan guitar/sax duo of John Ward and Matt Erickson (Radiant Husk/Bezoar Formations). I’ve been sitting on this hot little number for far too long.
The first of seven pieces goes straight to the heart of murky psych land. Smoky GHQish vibes abound as fuzzy guitar and fuzzy sax blend into the same hazy cloud. The last minute reveals a great, excellently placed, nearly DJ Primo-esque loop adding a lovely rhythmic bob to all the freeforminess that preceded it. The second piece is less droned, even incorporating some straight up psych-rock guitar melodies. I like the way the sax can kind of hide within the track and then pop out with these tense, vibrant bleats pushing the piece into a different realm. The last piece of the side starts with a rather up front high pitched guitar melody before falling back into a dynamic, beautifully astral stream of sounds.
The first piece from the second side brings in drums out of nowhere. I don’t even know if there’s guitar or sax on here, all I’m hearing is drums and fuzz. It’s an awesome rumble though and breaks up the otherwise percussion-less tape nicely. The next track continues the foray into rhythm with a repetitive guitar strum. That strum builds tension which is further heightened by occasional frantic sax work. The ending is pretty great too, with swarms of angry wasp-styled sounds before rolling a cool short sax melody. The side’s third piece plays things a lot more quietly than anything else on the tape; it’s much airier, looser and eases up on the poisonous, fuzzy fog that drenches everything else. The final piece wanders further from the guitar/sax instrumentatio, using a recording of sloshing water.
The tape is still available from Bezoar Formations, I recommend grabbing it along with Radiant Husk’s Beyond the Endless Swale, since it’s still in print and one of my favs from last year. Causeways of the Sun looks great too, as is usual with Bezoar.

Derek Rogers - Petit Chapeau [Tape Drift]

I’d been hearing a lot about this Derek Rogers guy earlier in the year and late in the summer I got my hands Petit Chapeau along with his also great split with Pummeler on Stunned.
I dig Rogers work because he manages to strike the delicate balance between creating a unified, monolithic force with his drones and avoiding strict minimalism and creating a depth of sound. “Side A” of this tape for instance, depending on the volume you are playing it at or perhaps just how attentive you are listening can seem like a constant, hypnotic flow of sound or a pretty complex, dynamic field of sounds. Both perceptions are great, and hey sometimes it’s nice to have control as a listener like when that record you have sounds even cooler at 45rpm. The sonic palette Rogers uses is fairly dark, in the sense of the color palette of the tape’s cover, rather than “dark” imagery. It’s dense and marshy, and kinda bleeds all over or into itself creating a nearly impenetrable, rumbling wall of fuzz. The wall of fuzz slowly opens up (or lightens up) near the end where everything seems to get a touch lighter in pitch and maybe with a bit of a brighter outlook as well. Which makes me wonder what exactly is it that makes a drone a downer or more uplifting?
I like “Side A” but “Side B” is what really captured my heart. Way more “synth-y,” this thing is just thick and pulsing to no end. The brute force of the low-end drones keeps kicking while Rogers fiddles with some higher pitched modulations further heightening the tension. The piece pounds you into submission in a weird way because it really isn’t noisy or abrasive but it just overpowers and absorbs you into itself. It’s this big fucking ball of sound that you just can’t ignore or avoid; it seeps directly into your brain through your ears whether you like it or not. Against all probability the piece gets even more massive, even more dynamic, and even tenser as it rolls along. I don’t even understand how Rogers does that; is it just a slow application of pressure through imperceptible volume increases or what? I don’t understand it and I’m not gonna argue. We obviously have a master at work here.
Still available as far as I can tell from Eric Hardiman’s (Rambutan) killer Tape Drift imprint and obviously recommended to those who like getting their brains rattled.

Cresting – An E.P. [Fixture]

This is a nifty little CD-r EP from Canada’s Fixture Records. It’s the debut of Montreal’s Gabe Ng a.k.a. Cresting.
The record has a breezy feel, but not the typical California breezy feel. It’s more like walking along a beach in the Northeast (or Northwest for that matter) with grey clouds gathered and billowing on the horizon and a chilly wind enveloping you. The atmosphere of the record is definitely important here, as the keyboards and pre-recorded drumbeats are wrapped in gauzy lo-fi production values to great effect.
The first track “A Bottom Hill” is based around a shuffling drum machine and stuttering keyboard. The melody sort of wobbles around, never fully repeating a clear cycle, but being more of a collection of random fragments with a similar theme in mind. “Sprained Ankle” is my favorite cause it’s a bit of a feel good number. A jaunty descending/ascending melody bounces along through the fogginess of the record bringing a brief, upbeat ray of sunshine amongst the clouds. “Variation on a Variation” builds around a number of short loops of guitar and keyboard and gets increasing askew and disjointed as it moves along. “Sashes” almost comes out like a twee hip hop beat. A groovy drumbeat and some keyboard-on-the-vibraphone-setting noodling. It’s a cool track but it’s really the addition of another organ melody halfway through and that really seals it. It’s a jam I like more and more each time I listen.
Ng then gets more abstract with “Crow’s Call” which moves on a couple seasick keyboard loops before bringing in drum machine and touches of harmonica half way through. The song turns into one of the more understated and unexpected grooves of the disc. The closer “Squared Feet” layers a bunch of rhythmic piano lines on top of each other forming yet another nice groove, but more organically and more complexly this time. It doesn’t feel like long before it’s over, which can be said of the disc as a whole as well. The CD makes for particularly pleasant listening now that we’re in the midst of Autumn.
The disc is still in print and available from the Fixture website.

Auxiliary Out Radio Programme #44 (11/1/2009)

Sun Araw “Luther” In Orbit [Stunned 2009] (CS)

Russian Tsarlag “The Master’s Speech” Split with Lesson Lesson Lessen Relearn [West Palm Beotch 2009] (7”) **played at 45rpm

Waterside Gala “Scotch and Soda” Composure & Recreation [Roll Over Rover 2009] (CS)

Cresting “Sprained Ankle” An EP [Fixture 2009] (CD-r)

Super Minerals “Clusters 3” Clusters [Stunned 2009] (CS)

The Uzi Rash Group “Bella Donna” Erotic Terror Beats the Drums of the Republic [Jerkwave Tapes 2009] (CS)

Sky Limousine “Untitled” Midnight Heat [Excite Bike Tapes 2009] (CS)

Charly “the city mouse” Fasano “Chicago Walk” Whiskey Won’t Cure Clap [Fast Geek Press 2009] (CS)

Abolicao “Side B” Flowering Judas [Cabin Floor Esoterica 2009] (CS)

Crash Normal “Hairy Wine 2” Finger Shower [Rijapov 2009] (10”)

Totally Dad “Creeks” Two Hearts [Obsolete Units 2007] (CD)

Floris Vanhoof “Paranormaalabamba” La Bamba [Ultra Eczema 2009] (LP)

White Crime “Teen Horror” White Crime [Faux Pas 2009] (CS)

Sean McCann “Ice Age Tea” Phylum Sigh [DNT/Roll Over Rover 2009] (CS/CD)

Fabric “And a Borrowed Shirt” Late Clothes/Blue Doorways I-III [Stunned 2009] (CS)

Sudden Oak “Untitled” Causeways of the Sun [Bezoar Formations 2009] (CS)

Millipede “Milky Way” Traveling [Sunrise Acoustics/Imperfect Music 2009] (CD-r)

Emuul “Whatever Pushes Back (Take 2)” Omicida Della Regina/Songs for a Solo Piano [Stunned 2009] (CS)

Size “El Diablo en el Cuerpo” El Diablo en el Cuerpo 1978-1984 [Broad Tapes 2008] (CS)

The German Measles “Mosco Street” Demos Sorry [Captured Tracks 2009] (CS)

Lesson Lesson Lessen Relearn “Ultra Cultural Bummer” Split with Russian Tsarlag [West Palm Beotch 2009] (7”)

Grasshopper - Wretched Blood Wraith [Obsolete Units]/Waterside Gala - Composure & Recreation [Roll Over Rover]

Got a couple of jazz-inspired (emphasis on the "-inspired") tapes recently and figured I'd them throw together and kill a couple birds with one stone.
So actually I'm not sure you can mention "jazz" in the vicinity of this Grasshopper tape because it's full of some of the thickest, most steamrollin' drones I've ever heard. It's a duo of trumpet players though so they must've played jazz at some point right? Anyway I'm getting off topic. The topic is of course that this tape totally RULES. It's so heavy and oppressive without actually being that abrasive in any way. The two guys weave filtered sonics into a fucking dense, maniacally zombie-like tapestry on the first side, "Regal Blood Wraith". It sounds like there's maybe some garbled speech in there too but I may be hearing things, the point being there are so many things going on it's difficult to wrap your brain around it.
So basically my vocabulary is not capable of describing how brilliant this piece of music is to you but the piece just keeps getting more massive, more swollen, more terrifying. The sonic equivalent of the Blob basically. This is some Yellow Swans-level shit, these Grasshopper guys know what the fuck they are doing. Simply incredible. I know which jam I'll be pumping when Halloween rolls around this Saturday.
That was just the first side, "The Langoliers" takes up the flip and it's equally as good. From the get-go the piece contains infinitely more hope than "Regal Blood Wraith". The tones are brighter, there's spacey synth-esque sounds and a soaring processed trumpet melody. That is until a killer, deep melodic undertow starts up and the piece locks into a great hypnotic groove. The piece achieves a strange, pulsing beauty and it feels just wonderful to bask in the sounds and it's pretty great how the piece just keeps getting better and better and better. It's also nice that they put the uplifting track after the (awesome) trek through hell of the first side so you end feeling at peace with the world.
With this tape I have discovered one of my new favorite bands. Get this immediately.
Waterside Gala (not a diss, but wouldn't have Waterslide Gala been even cooler?) is a brand new duo of Sean McCann and Kellen Shipley. How brand new? This, their debut, was recorded last month. According to Roll Over Rover's website, the duo plays keyboard and sax and first side "Scotch & Soda" is weirdly (or maybe not so weirdly) McCannish despite the constant skronk sax. Though what I'm assuming is sax sounds a lot like a violin being bowed to pieces. The piece has a lovely float and lilt to it and the frantic, scraping violin/sax/whatever keeps everything just enough off-balance to give all the beauty of the piece extra effect. It's a lovely curiosity. Near the end of the side everything changes to a cavernous sax/keyboard duet riffing on a pretty keyboard line and resigned sax, also quite lovely. The B-side "Guest of Honor" changes the vibe considerably, bringing in rattling percussion and murmuring saxophone. I think there's a flute in here too, making that whole keyboard/sax tag a bit of false advertising. In the keyboard's absence, the melody of this track comes from the sax giving a slower, more wandering tempo. It's not minimal like Body Morph/Uneven Universe, but it does have the oddly shifting sax-in-a-vacuum feel. The track builds to a strange climax where right at it's slight pinnacle, it completely deconstructs itself. Like the first side, there's a short coda at the end. This one sounds like rubber balls tumbling around in a giant wooden box.
It's a cool tape full of lots of interesting sounds. Check it out for sure, I'm looking forward to hearing more from these guys.
Both tapes are available still but limited to 60 so get them soon. And no, I have no idea what is going on with the artwork on the Grasshopper tape. Check Obsolete Units and Roll Over Rover for copies. You also may check the Hopper's 'space for copies too.

Auxiliary Out Radio Programme #43 (10/25/09)

Body Morph “Side A (excerpt)” Negative Face [Arbor 2008] (CS)

Hunted Creatures “Live Collage” Spring Tour Demo 2009 [Dynamo! 2009] (CD-r)

Shawn David McMillen “Untitled (excerpt)” End of the City [Abaddon/Abandon Ship/DNT 2009] (LP)

Francis Harold and the Holograms “I See It All” Who Said These Were Happy Times [Going Underground/Square Wave 2009] (LP)

FNU Ronnies “Golem Smoke” Golem Smoke [Skrot Up/Night People 2009] (CS/CD-r/one-sided LP)

Grey Daturas “Barren Planet” Barren Planet [Heathen Skulls 2009] (7” one-sided)

Bright Duplex “The Lady is Waiting” Strawberry Trust [Thor’s Rubber Hammer 2009] (CD-r)

Forest Dweller “Cedrus Libani” Demo [Dynamo! 2009] (CS)

Children Under Hoof “Live Scoring of John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 4/9/09 (excerpt)” none [Unreleased 2009] Watch it!

Mrtyu “Ritual Terra Continuii” Ritual Terra Continuii [Tipped Bowler Tapes 2007] (CS)

Ajilvsga “Dead, White, Lifeless” The Muddy Banks of the Arkansas [Near Passerine Devotionals 2009] (LP)

Wild Gunmen “Let the Blood Flow” Wild Gunmen [White Tapes 2008] (CS)

Locrian “Rain of Ashes (excerpt)” Rain of Ashes [Fan Death 2009] (CS)

Sorry no MP3 for this week due to severe technical issues with the radio station. How did I not know my (pre-)Halloween would be cursed...

Locrian - Rain of Ashes [Fan Death]

First of all, my apologies for the lack of reviews lately. Illness, houseguests, a ceiling leaking in 4 places and general school/work business have been keeping me, well, busy. Anyway, gonna work a bit harder to keep the site current. Now on to the show...
I can tell you one thing I thought I’d never see again and that is a new (as in current) tape in shrink wrap. And well, thanks to Fan Death I have seen it and even touched it. Locrian’s work both soundwise and visually is known for a certain professionalism and blackened elegance and Rain of Ashes, capturing a live performance on WMUC this past summer, continues their hit streak.
I haven’t had the fortune of seeing these guys live yet but if all the live recordings I’ve heard are any indication, and I assume they are, Locrian’s live show is quite an experience. Rain of Ashes starts up with a barely there drone which is slowly modulated by a searing, sustained guitar lead. The track slowly peels open with layers of subtle melodies. Some way into the tape a low guitar melody materializes and it’s very simple but a sweetly melodic counterpoint to the colder drones radiating elsewhere. The organ follows suit with a descending melody of its own that the guitar quickly picks up on. It becomes apparent just how psychically connected these guys must be to pull this stuff off live. There’s always been an underlying beauty to Locrian’s music but in this piece they push it out there front and center, expanding that organ melody into a lovely fugue. What’s more is that the guys perform a slo-mo obliteration of that little section. Unstable guitar tones and quaking bass frequencies attempt to usurp control and swallow that bit of beauty up whole. They don’t succeed which is good for me cause I quite liked that melody, though it doesn’t last forever. White noise and a solitary guitar playing a lonesome melody duet for a little while afterward. The tempo and volume increase slightly giving it a surprisingly rock vibe. This fades into a slightly more uneasy section, once again based around a guitar melody. A bolt of distortion builds intensity and the piece swells into a mild crescendo of swirling feedback that gets stormier by the minute, ending with something sounding like the wind blowing through a Metal Zone. It’s a really strange, non-linear journey but a good one.
One of the coolest things about the tape is instead of doing the standard double A-side tape, the piece plays out in reverse on the second side, making it possible to ride this thing continuously if you so choose. Even cooler is the track sounds really awesome in reverse. Since Locrian mostly uses sounds with slow attack, the piece doesn’t exactly sound reversed most of the time. Or at least not in a distracting way. It’s re-contextualized and strangely familiar but not quite the same. More bonus points go to the inspired backwards printing of the label on the first side of the tape on the B-side. Hell of a job by Fan Death and a hell of a job by Locrian.

Auxiliary Out Radio Programme #42 (10/18/09)

Rahdunes “Sounds” Drink and Drive Smoke or Fly [Bum Tapes 2009] (CS)

Peaking Lights “Intro to Imaginary Falcons” Imaginary Falcons [Night People 2009] (LP)

Oneohtrix Point Never “Zones Without People” Zones Without People [Arbor 2009] (LP)

Silver Bullets “Flight from Babylon” Free Radical [Stunned 2009] (CS)

Blank Realm “Cats on the Edge” Psyched Punch [DNT 2009] (CS)

Soloing Over Alanis Morissette “SOAM” Soloing Over Alanis Morrisette [Speed Tapes 2009] (CS)

Sord “Made in Ecuador 10-07” Rebuking the Despoiler [OSR Tapes 2009] (CS)

Theo Angell & the Tabernacle Hillside Singers “A Crime from the Vine” Tenebrae [Amish 2009] (CD)

Spade and Archer “Fifteen Stories High” Sullo Scaffale [Auris Apothecary 2009] (3” CD-r)

Terror Bird “Box Office Boyfriend” Sociopaths are Glam [Night People 2009] (CS)

Bird Names “Taxicabs and Bicycles” Sings the Browns [Really Coastal 2009] (CS)

Juan Matos Capote “Star Dust” Jabal [Circuit Torçat 2009] (CS)

Astral Social Club “Stacking Stacking” Split with Wounded Knee [Sick Head Tapes 2009] (CS)

Slasher Risk “Brooklyn” Slasher Risk [Obsolete Units 2009] (CD)

Fag Cop “They Won’t Tell Me About It” Whispers from the Pantheon [No Label 2009] (CS)

Life Partners “AIDS of Spades” AIDS of Spades/Teenager in Trouble [Ride the Snake 2008] (7”)

Mayyors “Deads” Deads [Hurling Man 2009] (LP)

Angst Hase Pfeffer Nase “Horseshoe Crabmobile (with Little Doo Doo Scoops)” Glistening Inn [Ultra Eczema 2008] (LP)

Rale “Side B (excerpt)” Slow Life [Young Tapes 2009] (CS)

mp3: Part 1 Part 2

Auxiliary Out Radio Programme #41 (10/11/09)

Historians “Slice n’ Dice” Proof [Stunned 2009] (CD-r)

Tusk Lord “Afraid of the Dark” Summer 2009 [Dynamo! 2009] (CS)

Jazzfinger “Birth of the Knife” Psyched Punched [DNT 2009] (2xCS)

Blue Sabbath Black Fiji “Laksa Bath” Gemini [Deathbomb Arc 2009] (CD-r)

Maths Balance Volumes “Untitled” Tried to Make a Call [Bum Tapes 2008] (CS)

Caethua “Surface Waters and Underground Seas” Split with Ancestral Diet [Goaty Tapes] (CS)

Nackt Insecten “The Telepathic Jackal” Split with Dylan Nyoukis [Sick Head Tapes 2009] (CS)

Hanging Coffins “Haunted Hives” Hanging Coffins [Night People 2009] (CS)

Warm Climate “Lost Teeth” Edible Homes [Stunned 2009] (CS)

Occasional Detroit “Side A” Occasional Bomb [Human Conduct/I Just Live Here 2007] (7”)

ID M Theft Able “Zone Y Ponds Y Sugars I’ve 3” Split with Cave Bears [Feeding Tube 2009] (LP)

Lam Young “Kati Sorn Jai” Siamese Soul: Thai Pop Spectacular Vol. 2 [Sublime Frequencies 2009] (CD)

Rambutan “Sideswept” Vertical [Tape Drift 2009] (CS)

Orphan Fairytale “Crybaby Needs a Hanky” Ladybird Labyrinth [Ultra Eczema 2009] (LP)

Bright Duplex “It’s Geese” Strawberry Trust [Thor’s Rubber Hammer 2009] (CD-r)

Teenage Panzerkorps “Arc de Triomphe” Teenage Panzerkorps [Captured Tracks 2009] (7”)

Grasshopper “Regal Blood Wraith” Wretched Blood Wraith [Obsolete Units 2009] (CS)

The Widow Babies “Carmen Y Pipo” Jet Packs [olFactory 2009] (LP one-sided)

Ignatz “The Woman Helped Him” A Canine and a Kitten in the Car [Goaty Tapes 2009] (CS)

Dragging an Ox Through Water “Devil’s Prayer” The Tropics of Phenomenon [Freedom to Spend 2009] (CD)

Brian Grainger “Swamp Bike at Dusk” Traveling [Imperfect Music/Sunrise Acoustics 2009] (CD-r)

mp3: Part 1 Part 2

Bright Duplex – Strawberry Trust [Thor’s Rubber Hammer]/I Heart Lung/DWMTG – Ecstatic Jazz Duos [Thor’s Rubber Hammer]

Thor's Rubber Hammer seems to be becoming the go to place for jazz in the underground. There was the totally slammin' first installment of Ecstatic Jazz Duos LP series last year with Talibam! and the absolutely most slaying Wasteland Jazz Unit stuff I've heard. Now Thor (actually Lars Gotrich) is back with the second Ecstatic Jazz Duos installment and an absolute monster of a CD-r by Bright Duplex.
If I gave out a best new artist award or something Bright Duplex would be the horse to bet on, cause from this vantage point they’ve got it pretty much locked up. The duo of Matthew Armistead on drums, percussion and clarinet and Vanessa Rossetto (The Mighty Acts of God) on viola/in, cello, percussion, electronics and field recordings. Just the instrument line-up alone is enough to get the salivary glands pumping. “Egg Harbor” says the first hello with grinding violin and snare devolving into a humming/whining clarinet/strings duet that ratchets up the tension while Armistead beats his percussive pallet with frustrated fury. The clarinet gets placed more centrally on “Luminous Pumpkin Sockets” which is always met by enthusiasm in my book, before long though the duo ends up in an acoustic drone passage. That passage becomes rather absorbing with epic gongwork, splinters of feedback and jangly bells. The duo lets lose with the reeds near the end which sounds wicked and on a dime they’re in hushed silence slowly creeping back into the daylight. “The Lady is Waiting” turns out some kind of bizarre, creepy horror movie jazz. Combining all the right frequencies to scare the shit out of me. The piece drifts along with a minimum of percussion; it’s mostly fueled by the vibrations supplied by the clarinet and strings. And when this thing heads for the climax, oh man, it is sensational. Clarinet pipes up for a few seconds leading into a huge swell of sound, really tremendous. “Motorcycle Goodbye” features violin in a more melodic role, sort of, cello also gets the spotlight briefly too. The thing that’s so strange about Bright Duplex is they have such control over dynamics, they can kind of “mute” the whole band leaving each instrument in a tense, straitjacketed state. Weird but incredibly effective. “Small Simulacra” in contrast, gets to roam a bit freer including an odd rhythmic pattern by Armistead. Rossetto creates a great bed/undertow of strings as well which slowly sucks the jam into some sort of crazy jazz vortex. “It’s Geese” also kicks off in more “straightforward” fashion. Creeping percussion, creepy violin, creepier clarinet all headed to some grimy jazz club on the eastside of Hell. The piece has an especially eerie spirit to it for a mere jazz jam, even hypnotizing in a way. A recording of a crowd of people crops up later which prompts clarinet and drums take a little well-earned alone time together. It’s hard to choose a favorite on a record like this but that could be it. “Church of Rosy Porky Pine” rides on grinding strings and rumbling drums before gliding to a halt. The hilariously apathetically-titled finale “Well Then” starts up with droning strings and mild free percussion. The piece feels like it’s about to lash out at any moment but manages keep things polite and noticeably more melodic than the rest of record due to Rossetto’s stringwork. All that makes for a great, unassuming topper. These guys are pretty spectacular, there’s no way this stuff was done totally live—there’s gotta be overdubs somewhere—but Strawberry Trust totally feels live though. Very vibrant, alive and masterfully executed. Furthermore, these guys have a sound all their own; I mean, name your favorite current underground jazz crew, chances are Bright Duplex sound different and, most likely, better than they do.

The second installment of the Ecstatic Jazz Duos series continues to expand the range of artists in its exclusive roster. Electric guitar/drums duo, I Heart Lung, takes the first side with three pieces. “Conflagration” is the longest, taking up the first half of the side. It begins rather un-jazzy with reversed guitar and the grinding of rusty cymbals until the guitar debuts the main melody and the drums follow suit, shaping up into a semi-free pattern. There are some relaxing moments of a mellow guitar melody and slight drum accents, actually my favorite part of the piece, before a return to the initial melody at the end of the track. “Grand Assembly Line of Retired Machinery” starts out a bit more fiercely with a mechanized split second guitar loop, which is backed by splashes of drums and guitar chords before turning to ambient drones for the rest of the track. The most bracing and best track of the side is “Axes Only,” which settles into a melody akin to that of the first piece, after the opening of slashing guitar and frantic drumming. I Heart Lung sound the most “ecstatic” here; they play with more ferocity and seemingly more purpose. Their foray within the more traditional areas of guitar-led jazz sounds more alive in this piece than elsewhere on their side. However, they’re at their absolute best when they’re at their most atavistic. As the piece nears its conclusion it reaches its peak of intensity when I Heart Lung takes to thrashing about frenetically creating a synergetic texture of aggression. It’s a pretty great ending.
Overall, this is a decent side. It’s obviously competently performed and features some great moments but I can’t help repeating that they don’t sound that “ecstatic” for most of their contribution, at many points I find myself wishing they would really go for it as they do at the end of their side. I’m no scholar of jazz, but what I Heart Lung is doing doesn’t really feel that new either unlike the work of the artists on the previous installment of Ecstatic Jazz Duos. I should also note though, that I tend to prefer reeds and/or brass-led jazz as opposed to guitar-led jazz.
DWMTG is a Thurston Moore-approved electric bass/percussion duo of Dale W. Miller and Tony Gordon and their side is comprised of ten untitled tracks. The first piece begins oddly enough with a duet between a bass guitar and a rubber ducky or some such squeaky toy. After many listens I’m still not sure what the hell to make of it. The next piece is even stranger with, possibly electronic, clicking percussion and percussive, “noteless” bass work. Things start to congeal on the third piece with slippery bass playing and skittering cymbal work. The fourth piece, as well, has weirdly burbling bass work and rustling drums. I like the textures that Gordon pulls out of his bass, because as far as I can tell there are no effects or anything and he makes some strange sounds. I can appreciate DWMTG’s textural miniatures (and their overall weirdness) though I think it’d be to their benefit to let loose a bit more and use dynamics to their advantage. A couple of the later tracks feature more confrontational vibes with both instruments creating thick webs of sounds and pushing those sounds much harder and to a fuller extent. The last couple pieces are louder, less sparse and, I think most importantly, get the blood flowing, the head nodding and the foot tapping.
The LP also features some of Christopher Cichocki’s best artwork; I particularly love the front cover which looks like a sketch of some barren, landscape despite it probably being a microscopic image of wood or something.
Both releases are still available but note that Strawberry Trust is limited to 100. Also, a suggestion to Thor, snap up Bright Duplex for a future edition of Ecstatic Jazz Duos right away! Those kids can't miss!

Swim Ignorant Fire – Haircuts [No Label]/Jamison Williams – Onassis Project [Closet Sorcery]

A couple of recent releases here both digging in the squalid sandbox of noisy electronics.
This Haircuts CD-r is a self-released repress of an earlier release on Scotch Tapes. Swim Ignorant Fire is the solo guise of Stephen Holliger who plays in Veyou with Nick Hoffman (Katchmare), a duo which made one of the coolest tapes of the year back in January.
“Seeds on a Sunday Wedding” kicks things off with a twitchy, glitchy beat, keyboard swells and a creepy manipulated sample of singing. Weird but also weirdly comforting. That feeling disappears with “Marc Ribot can Kiss My Furry Ass!” a pairing of loud, scratchy beats and manipulated guitar melodies. I dig a sample of a live snare that comes into play in the second half of the track. Still not sure what Ribot did to anyone though, I always liked that dude’s playing. “Come to Pop Pop” brings back that weird ghostly singing and sets it to a weird distorted waltzing melody. “I Just Got Shot in the Love Handle” reminds me of a piece of music from Requiem for a Dream, which is awesome to say the least. Super groovy, grimy, crunchy and melodic. Very cool jam. “Take Something with You” brings back that ghostly singing but this time over a surprisingly straightforward arrangement. The track is mostly unfettered acoustic guitar with a few fragments of beats here and there. The placement of the acoustic guitar works incredibly well, creating a brief oasis in the middle of the record from the dirty machines that usually dominate it. “GPA Won’t Stop Being Epic” makes up about a fourth of the album’s length. It continues with acoustic guitar as well as televangelism and rave beats. “The Fall of Leaves” features a thematically driven recording of trudging through leaves, with a very pretty reversed melody. That ghostly singing sample reappears here though it doesn’t totally gel with everything else going on in the track though there’s a nice lilting accordion near the end. “Let You Down” and “I’m All Better” continue in the mellow tradition of the second half of the album; I think the latter is the better of the two though. The short closer “New Dress” joins a bristling Velcro beat with manipulated vocals and a simple guitar melody.
Onassis Project by Jamison Williams uses some similar elements as Swim Ignorant Fire (samples, scratchy electronics) but flows through a much harsher vein. Apparently there are five tracks on this tape, “Bouvier-Kennedy” “Christina O” “MARIA CALLAS” “Nineteen Seventy-Five” “Myasthenia Gravis” however my ever discerning ears hear no tracks at all. There’s “Side A” and “Side B” and that’s all I can make out. The first side is steeped in manipulated distortion and cut up vomity vocals. It settles into no less stable territory of pitch manipulations that alternately sound like free sax and a tyrannosaurus rex. Vocal samples attempt to be heard but its pretty futile. Williams works pretty much unhinged from any concept of melody and rhythm for the most part, so when two pitches that sound nice together end up side by side, it immediately catches attention if only for a split second. By the end there are legit saxophonics, though Williams is only credited with sound manipulations so my hypothesis is he had been manipulating a recording of saxophone the whole time. “Side B” picks up roughly where “Side A” left off. Combining free jazz dynamics with mechanical textures, the aggressive opening section calms down, relatively, for a little bit leading into a near melodic passage. Most surprisingly, an unmanipulated saxophone pops up for a few seconds of slow blues. A denser, darker, noisier section usurps this though. This section actually comes as a relief because it’s not being changed every two seconds. The tape comes to a close crumbling into more free sax before bottoming out completely into noisy squelch. I prefer the second side cause its constructed tighter, rather than the willy-nillyness of the first side.
The most interesting thing is that this was apparently recorded back in August 1995. To my ears it sounds like it could have been recorded in August 2009. I don’t know if that means we’re behind the times or if Williams was ahead of them. Maybe noise is just getting to be universal like rock n’ roll, where there’ll always be a spot for it at any place in time, I don’t know.
Haircuts is available from the Swim Ignorant Fire myspace but limited to 14. I’m guessing the Jamison Williams tape is still available but I don’t know what happened to the Closet Sorcery website.